Archive for July, 2008

Today is the birthday of one member of awesomo and we are drinking our faces off.Awesomo is also attending the all star game and since you can watch it on tv we decided to liveblog our drinking instead.The plan is to drink in the city until we stumble into the game at 8. After the game or when we leave we are going to continue the drinking in hoboken.Will this plan work? WE hope yes or we may pass out on the path train.The first stop was Stout and we had two drinks a piece.We are now at Turtle Bay and its white trash tuesdays so it looks like PBR cans and some punch. Check back later for updates. Disclaimer we may not continue the liveblog. Next place is Opal which is about two inches away from Turtle Bay. Turtle Bay had the craziest bartender but our drinks were crazy cheap. Now after taking a red devil shot we are close to wasted. Wait we are already wasted so therefore we are going to continue because we are in for the long haul.

By now, 5:05 on the east coast, most people have probably heard that Brett Favre is looking to break away from the Pack. Possibily to move to Florida and hang out with Mary. Yes that is big news, but we leave big news to the big news sources. Is Favre going to get released? Will there be tears? Where will he land? Who knows? One thing we know is that we don’t care.

There are 3 sources that do care though; ESPN, Fox Sports, and SI. ESPN is claiming that their very own Chris Mortenson got the scoop, and it would appear as though he is reporting right from Brett’s side (byline of Hattiesburg, Miss). If he truly is all up in Favre’s grill, then why didn’t he drop the story until 4:46 pm?

When you look over at SI.com, it appears as though the AP had the story at 4:35pm. Upon even closer review, Fox Sports dropped the breaking news at 3:54. Resident headline grabber and ass kicker Jay Glazer gives credit to ESPN, but not specifically to Mort.

We find it hard to believe that Mort is actually doing any reporting. It must be nice to have the brass up at ESPN pass along scoops, and make it look like you are doing an excellent job. For now score one for the WWL, but Fox Sports had the headline first.

Not the usual boob tube update, but we are the usual blogger. It’s Friday night, and you know what that mean, right? It’s date night. We are in a movie kind of mood, and we will see if the Mrs. is too. Now comes the question, go to the movies (which is expensive and a hassle), or stay in and rent from our friendly neighborhood Blockbuster? We will hammer that decision out later, but one thing that will weigh heavily is the movie selection. These are the possible candidates for the night;

Theatres

-“Hancock”-Some might argue that Will Smith is among the best actors of his generation. Some might argue that. We are not going to lie, but we weren’t impressed with the “Pursuit of Happiness” or “Ali.” His acting wasn’t bad in it, just more a product of a poor movie. Granted we are suckers for films like “Independence Day,” which we typically watch when it appears on Encore. We heard “Hancock” was alright. It doesn’t look like a movie that makes me want to jump out of my seat and go see, but it looks entertaining nonetheless. On the downside, we heard it was alarmingly short, and if we are gonna pay 40 bucks for a night out, we at least want to earn it.

-“HellBoy II”-Not gonna lie, we pretty much didn’t want to see this movie. We like comics, we like action, but the first one was just eh. We didn’t really want to see this movie…until we saw this commercial, which has nothing to do with the movie, but we are suckers for blatant jokes. The only one we like is at about 50 seconds.

Video

-“Vantage Point”-We are a little suprised by this movie. Judging from the lack of information that we have heard about it, we are going to assume that it isn’t very good. We are thinking it is something along the lines of “The Interpreter,” but perhaps we will find out more. Besides, we are fans of most of the projects that Forest Whitaker takes on.

Of course the “Dark Knight” comes out next week, which pretty much renders all other movies obsolete.

Here it is, the Tampa Bay Rays have lost 3 in a row, to the Yankees no less, and lead the AL East by a meger 2 games. This is a thought we have been kicking around for some time now, and we figure that now is just as good a time as any. The Rays won’t win the AL East, and they won’t even make the playoffs. Sure, all of the media thinks they are the greatest thing since sliced breadSuper Smash Brothers, but the media has been known to get caught up in “who’s now” before. The Rays have several flaws that many “analysts” like to over-look. For the analysts and our reader, we have a comprehensive list about why the Rays ship will sink, and don’t worry, we won’t involve VORP or “adjusted batting averages.”

1.) Although the name has changed, these are still the same old Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays. This is a team that has never won more than 70 games in a season, and currently has 11 less wins than they had all of last season. Granted their players are maturing before our eyes, but they have not made too many tremendously key additions. Matt Garza appears to be performing well, but hey, it’s Matt Garza.

2.) Why are they so good right now? Superman Evan Longoria has helped tremendously, but he is only batting .281. Sure, he has 16 homers and hasn’t been playing the entire season, but he also has 76 K’s in that same time span. Carlos Pena, who hit 46 bombs last year, is a shell of his former self with 14 homers and his minute batting average of .233. Right now, they only have have 1 +.300 hitter. Dioner Navarro also happens to be a lifetime .261 hitter. The lovely thing about baseball, and batting average, is that is typical remains constant. A career .261 hitter, stays a .261 hitter. There might be some abberations, but .051 points is a little more than the standard deviation. The next closest average on the team is the aformentioned Longoria. Where is the offense going to come from on this team? We think Cliff Floyd is a swell guy, but he just isn’t going to cut it. I will take my chances with Manny Ramirez any day.

3.) Right now, the anchor of the team is the pitching staff. For wins, see Andy Sonnanstine. For ERA, see Matt Garza. For K’s see James Shields. Sonnanstine has nearly doubled his career win total, Garza looks stoned in his profile picture, and James Shields looks poised to have another stellar year. All of this great pitching has been going on without the mention of Scott Kazmir. He is clearly the ace of the staff, and by far the best player on the team (haha Mets fans). The starting pitching is looking good. Even in all of our negativity, we can’t deny this, but they are young. Those four pitcher have a combined 9 seasons under their belts. A youth movement is good, it is what the Yankees couldn’t put together, but youth is often seen as a detriment. The Rays have also managed to put together a pretty solid rag tag version of a bullpen. These guys are all successfull, but they but it remains to be seen if they can sustain. As of now though, the Ty Wiggington for Dan Wheeler trade appears to be going well. We will see if the staff can sustain.

4.) They play in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox. Sure, people like to hate on them, but they are winners for a reason. Just ask Baltimore how it has felt battling them. For a team that is under .500 on the road, that isn’t a good thing.

5.) And the biggest reason is Joe Maddon. The man is a certifiable idiot; he doesn’t fight cancer, he doesn’t have an identity, and these are some of his philosophies. Many of Maddon’s “ideas” have been questionable at best. His immaturity in managing has never been under the spotlight, but if he plans on being in this race, the lights will only get brighter.

If anything is going to sustain this team, it is their pitching, but they are unproven, and the dog days of summer are coming up. We may be eating our words come the end of August, but we don’t think so.

Let’s get serious people. This voting business is serious, and if you don’t vote, P. Diddy will kill you. The avid readers of Awesomo probably saw yesterday’s post about who is trying to sway votes for the AL, and most likely you were thinking, “yeah that is great, but who should I vote for in the NL?” Never fear, Awesomo is here. Don’t like what we have to say, check out these jerks.

Pat “The Pearl” Burrell: WTF is the pearl for you ask? Well that is how his last name is pronounced, like Bearl. Down to the nitty gritty. Burrell is batting .277 with a monsterous 22 jacks, 54 RBIs, and his OBP is soaring at .409. A man that has stuckout no fewer than 120 in his 8 year career, has 72 already. The difference this year is that he has dropped 22 bombs, and looks to be on pace to set career highs in homers and batting average. Unless of course he pulls a Bobby Abreu and disappears in the second half. Remember, this is a Philly we are talking about.

Corey Hart: He is batting .299 with 14 bombs, 55 RBIs, and 13 more stolen bases than Pat Burrell. Aided by nothing bu fan voting and sheer Hart (see what we did there), the Brewer outfielder is looking to land his trip to NY. Too bad he isn’t that good. Better luck next year pal. The Brewers would have a better chance if they were campaiging for CC.

Carlos Lee: “El Caballo” arguably boasts the best stats of everyone in this group, .290, 20 HRs, and 70 RBI. Plus he is on our fantasy team, and we traded Kerry Wood for him. The Astros will give a lucky voting fan a free signed bat, but a Panama City radio station will give you a free hat if you vote 25 times, and said hat is for a beer company.

Aaron Rowand: He made the all-star team last year. Apart from hitting instead of Albert Pujols, it was a very unforgettable night. He is batting .300 with 8 HRs, and 47 RBIs. Thanks but no thanks.

David Wright: Wright is batting .288, 17 homers, 70 RBI, 56 runs, and 9 SBs. Probably the second best numbers after Lee. We love everything about Wright, his style of play, his attitude, his ability, this website. Some might say we have a man crush, but this year, we don’t want this man to make the team. Right now, there is only 1 Met representative on the All-Star roster, and that is fine by us. With the class that this organization has handled themselves, they deserve nothing more. It is our hope that David doesn’t make this team.

Who we are voting for: Pat Burrell is putting up stellar numbers, especially in the first couple of months, but he has slowed his pace a little, and he is a Philly. We kind of just don’t like them. Carlos Lee has great numbers, and a cool nickname. That is enough to sway our vote. Now it’s up to you.

Who should be the final player on each ballot (besides those guys that get hurt and replaced, or pitch and get replaced)? Here are your choices for the AL; Jermaine Dye, Jason Giambi, Jose Guillen, Brian Roberts, and Evan Longoria. Now, here is a look at why or why not they should be voted;

Dye: Batting .308 with 19 homers, and 52 RBIs, Dye clearly has the best stats of everyone else on this list. Stats have nothing to do with All-Star voting. We are talking about the fans here. Dye is having a resurgence of his career this year for the AL Central leading White Sox (is it a contract year?), but that isn’t going to be enough.

Giambi: He is it at .256 with 18 homers, and 53 RBIs. He has worse numbers than Dye, but lucky for the mustached one he is in the midst of an incredible marketing campaign. He has also managed to increase his average 65 points since May 18th, and as always is a king of the walk and has a .393 OBP with a .929 OPS, both of which are better than Dye. Giambi plays in the big city, and will likely end up 1st or second in voting.

Jose Guillen: He is at .272 with 13 knocks and 64 RBIs. He has solid RBI figures, but plays in crappy KC. A situation like that will typically doom a player. Getting into dust ups like this certainly don’t help. No way Jose.

Brian Roberts: He clearly can’t compete statistically with the other players, except his 24 SB. With Ian Kinsler and Dustin “I hate you” Pedroia, Roberts will enjoy his time on the bench at the game. So far, of the 4 candidates, 3 have been proven steroid abusers. See we knew steroids were good for you.

Evan Longoria; Hitting .281, 16 homers, and 52 RBIs, Longoria has the numbers. Besides the fact that he has numerous game winning hits, plays on the best team in baseball, and that Joe Crede is already on the team, Longoria is a rookie that hasn’t even been playing the entire season. Of all of the players to vote for, Longoria should be the popular choice, but it remains to be seen if the Rays can get the fans to come out and vote. Seeing as how Red Sox fans have accounted for their largest crowds this season, it may be difficult. Either way, the kid is having a heck of a year.

Who we are voting for: We don’t make are motives hidden. We want Giambi to win the voting because we have tickets to the Home Run Derby presented by State Farm, and Giambi says he won’t participate unless he is an all-star. Get out there and vote.

Granted that is just our opinion. To show you how much our opinion means, the only other thing that we have ever watched that is remotely close to a tennis match is John McEnroe in Mr. Deeds. That still doesn’t change the fact that this match was riveting, exciting, dramatic, and any other word you can think of that means entertaining. Our new favorite tennis player, Rafael Nadal, became the king of grass and clay, becoming the first person since 1980 to win The French Open and Wimbledon consecutively. How did he do it you ask? With heart, perseverance, and determination.

The Spaniard, that refuses to wear sleeves, led the match two love before being halted in the third set due to rain. The Brits have yet to invent a roof for their stadium. The delay was just what Federer needed as he broke Nadal’s chance for a championship to take the third set, and did the same in the fourth. There they were, the king of clay, and the king of all tennis, knotted after 4 sets. The final set gave the fans any and everything they could have asked for. It was a back and forth thrilling set as Nadal refused to be broken. For the final set, the two traded games. Each refusing to be broken. Nadal led 40-0 with the two tied 5-5 and 6-6. Federer refused to be broken as he nailed aces and took each set. Not to be out-done, Nadal dazzled with his athleticism, broke Federer with the set 7-7, and Federer was done. Nadal, possibly running entirely on emotion, grunted and groaned his way to his first Wimbledon championship. Nadal celebrated with family and Spanish royalty, and was as gracious in victory as Federer was in defeat. Apart from some awkward hand pounds, hugs, and interviewing from John McEnroe, the match and the coverage was flawless. It is nice to see a network that knows they are not the story, the athletes are. This match was a raw confrontation of two men giving it all they had, and ended as the greatest match that we had ever scene, and arguably the greatest tennis match ever played. In all, it has been a pretty good summer for Spain.

Work is sort of busy, but we just can’t get into it right now. We had car problems, but that let us rent a Mustang, so we felt cool for a little. Then we remembered that we started a blog. Sure no one visits, and no one is reading it, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t post about baseball, and link to some other websites that we like. For now we are going to recap some baseball action. You want a recap? I got your recap right here…

Rays 5, Boston 4; Gabe “Don’t Call Me” Gross and B.J. “What’s” Upton (Sorry that was too easy) each homered for the team that everyone thinks will need Cialis by the end of the season. For now the are 1 1/2 games up on those sorry Sox.

KC 6, Bmore 5; Miguel Olivo doesn’t need no stinkin’ maple bat. He homered to tie the game in the top of the 9th. KC gathered one more in the 11th and went home happy.

Rangers 2, Yanks 1; Arod went yard, and the team wasn’t down or up by 10 runs. Take that haters. Unfortunately, the remainder of the team wasn’t clutch, except for maybe Mike Mussina who used ice cream to power his way to 8 Ks. The comeback kid Josh Hamilton notched an RBI in his team’s victory.

Tigers 5, Twinkies 4; Joel Zumaya got a save. Not sure if that is going to be a recurring theme, or if he was just celebrating the release of “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.”

A’s 6, TLAAofA 1; The LLAALALALAAofA have scored 2 runs in 4 games. Greg Smith pitched a complete game for the A’s. Typically that isn’t all that noteworthy, but CGs hardly happen, and Greg Smith is on my fantasy team, SUCKA! Sure this site updates less than we do, but we feel for them. As hardly read blogs, we need to stick together. Stick with it FSCB.

Blue Jays 2, M’s 0; The Blue Jays haven’t been scored upon in 18 consecutive innings. Maybe there is something to this whole steroids gone scoring down thing.

NL Time

Mets 1, Cards 7; Sure if you want news about the Cardinals go here, but thanks to our Jerry Manuel story, we found a link for Mets info here. Sometimes blog names are really clever. We tip our cap to that one. The Met’s lost last night, and Maine sucked.

Pirates 3, Reds 4; Griffey hit a walk-off bomb. Good for him. We know we are in the minority, but we don’t really like Ken Griffey Jr. Speaking of people that don’t like other people, Dan Shanoff sounds off.

Nats 5, Fish 6; 5 homers were hit in this game, including a walk-off by Josh Willingham to swat those pesky (g)Nats. See what I did there? It was a little play on words. The Nationals are like bugs, and…oh hell, you get it.

Astros 4, Dodgers 1; Roy “The Enigma” Oswalt pitched a gem last night but left after 6 with an injury and 9 Ks. Since both of these teams suck, I can’t think of a better place to drop this debate.

Dbags 6, Brewbags 3; The Dbacks are struggling, Eric Byrnes is crumbling, and where is Max Scherzer? At least they got a win out of this one.

Cubs 9, Giants 2; The Cubs are the best team in the NL, but struggle a bit on the road. San Francisco is a friendly place, so they decided to help a good team get better by pitching Barry Zito. Mark “My name isn’t Derek” DeRosa belted 2 homers. We launched the recap with the Cubbies, and we end with them. Check it ooooooouuuuutttt!